


The Static's Where You'll Find Me

by ninjamcgarrett



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Radio, Science Boyfriends, Science Bros, bruce and tony as competing radio djs and all the snark and slow burn and fluff, not even sorry, radio dj
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-23 06:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninjamcgarrett/pseuds/ninjamcgarrett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark and Bruce Banner operate the same midnight to four a.m. time slots on UW's two radio stations. One night, Tony decides to prank call Bruce's show, unknowingly setting off a war of the late night shows. It becomes a war of words, prank calls, and music choices as both men scramble to figure out who the other DJ really is (thanks to their radio nicknames masking their true identities). As they spend more time fighting and snarking on the airwaves, Tony and Bruce not-so-accidentally meet in real life - thanks to some meddling from their roommates and friends - and begin to fall in love. Yet, there is still the issue of finding out just who that enigmatic voice is on the other end of the airwaves that leaves them burning for each other at the end of each show...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Midnight City

**Author's Note:**

  * For [girl0nfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/girl0nfire/gifts), [thyrza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thyrza/gifts).



Our story begins in the not-so-small town of Seattle. It is one of radio disc jockeys, their housemates, their university shenanigans, and two men fighting against Fate – who is determined to see them fall in love. Tony is the DJ for the midnight to four a.m. slot on UW’s premiere radio station, filling the air with his seductive voice, late night ramblings, and seemingly odd music choices, while Bruce operates the same time slot on the other radio station on campus. His is a show filled with humor, cheerful music, and the occasional appearances from his roommate, Thor - whose real name no remembers. Our story begins on one early October night as the first chill of autumn clung to the night sky like the stubborn leaves to the trees on the campus.

+

It was late in the studio, no one else was around. In the early days, Clint had been Tony’s producer, but the man had thought it would be fun to play the part of the asshole roommate and one-up Tony during his show. After one prank gone very wrong, Tony and Clint came to the understanding that they would keep their roommate adventures to their house and Tony would operate his show on his own.

The two men had met their freshman year, paired together as roommates. It had taken time for them to smooth the bumps out of their friendship, but eventually, they had settled into an easy rhythm, working well as friends and roommates. At the beginning of their sophomore year, Tony and Clint had decided to rent a house together with another friend of theirs – James “Bucky” Barnes – in the Queen Anne district. By the following summer however, the house went from three men to two, as Bucky moved into a nearby apartment with his boyfriend, Steve Rogers, the hunky art and history double major.

Over the two years that Tony and Clint had inhabited their house, they had done – well, a few _upgrades_ to it. The first had been the addition of a rescued kitten that Tony had decided to name “Jarvis” for a reason that was still unknown to Clint. Next had come the upgraded surround sound system that stretched through the entire house, including the garage that Tony had remodeled as his lab for all of his mechanical engineering projects. Not long after that had come the “prime perching places”, as Clint had called them, that Tony installed for his roommate and best friend. Clint had taken to perching in strange places their freshman year when he needed to think and Tony had found it strange and entertaining but not beneath the subject of one of his late night projects in the garage.

As Tony queued up the next hour’s tracks in his booth, a smile appeared on his face as he thought about the good times he had had with his roommate. Now that it was the beginning of their senior year, Tony knew that sometime soon they would have to face the prospect of going separate ways for graduate school and jobs and the real world. But that was something to think about another time, Tony thought. Right now, the commercial break was ending and he had another segment to concentrate on.

Switching his cigar to his left hand – and Tony _knew_ that he wasn’t supposed to smoke in the booth but he couldn’t help it because it helped calm his nerves and oh _fuck_ the On Air light had gone on, honestly where was his brain these days – Tony pressed the talk button and leaned toward the mike.

“Welcome back, Seattle! This is Dr. Edward and I’ll carry you through to the top of the hour with some rocking tunes. It’s 12:43 and here to start off our next segment is Poison’s _Nothing But A Good Time_. I’ll see you back here after the song.”

Smoke filtered through the air of the radio booth, the tip of Tony’s cigar glowing in the dim light as he pushed in the audio track. Tony liked it this way, dark, smoky, quiet aside from his voice. Clint, rather drunkenly, had once described Tony’s voice as the rough but dark appeal of double-barreled whiskey, burning through his body in a way that only liquor and the hot fire of desire could. A fifth later, the drunken Clint had gone on to say that Tony’s voice finished like cool, smooth brandy over ice, sliding over and through the body, leaving behind a wake of chills, lingering long after his voice had left the airwaves for the night.

And really, Tony wasn’t ashamed to admit he liked the sound of his voice – maybe a little too much, according to others. Then again, he also liked all those golden hits from the eighties, which his late night show attested to with Tony’s music choices ranging from Billy Idol to Billy Joel and anywhere in between. His phone buzzed in his pocket and Tony fished it out, keeping an eye on the countdown of how much time was left in the song.

_“You should hear your competition’s show right now! He’s rambling about Schrödinger’s birthday and the cat experiment the dude came up with. It’s hysteri-caw!”_

Tony shook his head, laughing softly. Clint must have decided it was time to turn on the radio again while working on his thesis for his biology seminar; he only broke out the “caw” jokes when he was trying to wade through research on hawk behavior. Tony’s beloved, if a little nutty, roommate found Dr. Robert’s show entertaining and good background noise while working. Dr. Robert ran a show that included mellow jazz, talk about physics and nuclear experimentation, and occasional appearances from his roommate that Dr. Robert had jokingly nicknamed Thor, telling his listeners that “this guy could give the Norse god a run for his hammer”. Thor appeared once a week to talk American football – one of the many strange quirks about the Australian transfer student – and his latest baking escapade, which Tony was convinced involved marijuana whenever the Australian decided to cook.

 _“Sounds fun,”_ Tony replied. _“You should call and weigh in as the resident biologist on the state of the cat.”_

Clint’s favorite part of Dr. Robert’s show were the callers, who ranged from geeks, to stoners, to opinionated idiots – Tony and Clint’s personal favorite. Tony’s phone buzzed again as the countdown neared thirty seconds for the Poison song.

 _“Nah, bro. You should – prank call him as some geeky little freshman, push his buttons,”_ the text read and Tony could practically hear the laughter from Clint.

He straightened and put his phone down as the song ended and the On Air sign switched back on.

“Welcome back to 99.9 SHI! That was Poison’s _Nothing But A Good Time_ you just heard.”

 _Oh, what the hell,_ Tony thought. _You only live once and what’s the harm in a little fun, especially if the listeners get a kick out of it?_

“It’s a quarter to one and now, ladies and gents, we have a special surprise for you.”

Tony pressed the speed dial for Dr. Robert’s hotline and grinned. The line picked up a few seconds later as the other DJ’s voice filtered through Tony’s headphones – Dr. Robert’s producer, Natasha, must have been off for the night.

“Yes, hello, this is Dr. Robert and I’m listening…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title taken from the M83 song. As this is a story about radio DJs, I figured it was appropriate to title each chapter from a song. Cheers!


	2. Hurricane

“Good,” Tony said, his grin turning practically feral. “I’d like to weigh in on your Schrödinger piece.”

A soft chuckle floated through Tony’s headset, wrapping around him and mingling with the wisps of smoke from his cigar.

“All right, listener. Go ahead, enlighten us!”

Tony licked his lips, taking a moment to switch gears from radio DJ to annoying freshman. He pitched his voice higher as he spoke, fighting back a laugh.

“Yes, I’d just like to point out that Schrödinger’s cat experiment was one of psychology not quantum mechanics.”

Tony could hear the slight squeak of the other DJ’s chair as he sat forward.

“Oh?” Dr. Robert spoke. “Well, the point of his experiment was to test the boundaries of time-space paradoxes within physics and – ”

“Yes, yes, that’s great,” Tony cut in, positive that he sounded more like a woman than a stuck-up freshman, “but the experiment has its roots in psychology. It was meant to drive a person mad! I should know!”

There was a slight pause before Dr. Robert spoke again. When he did speak, his voice was slow, pitched lower, as if he were wary, waiting for an explosion, more than an explanation from his caller. Something in his tone reminded Tony of the way a cornered panther would pace, slowly, gauging the threat and formulating the best way to shred it to pieces. He fought a shiver at the latent power inherent in Dr. Robert’s voice and cleared his throat, dropping his voice back down to its normal octave.

“Because that’s what your show has done to me!” Tony managed, letting out a cackle and hoot of laughter.

“What’s your name?” Dr. Robert asked and Tony could almost hear the scowl come through the airwaves.

“Dr. Edward – a fake name just like yours, sweetheart,” Tony chuckled, feeling immensely proud of himself as the other DJ grumbled audibly in the mike.

 _“You,”_ Dr. Robert hissed. “You have five seconds to explain yourself before I disconnect the call and sic Fury on your ass.”

“Oooh, I’m so scared,” Tony said, making his voice quake in mock terror. “Our boss loves me, baby. He won’t do anything to hurt his number one show.”

Dr. Robert snorted. “Yeah, but you forget, Dr. Egghead, that I’m the number two show at this station. Where else would all your listeners go when they get tired of your horrid taste in music?”

Tony spluttered and then coughed, having accidentally inhaled an errant wisp of cigar smoke. “Listen here, punk. I’ll have you know that my listeners love my taste in music – and my mellifluous voice!”

A laugh floated through Tony’s headphones and he growled.

“Mellifluous? Makes me think of Maleficent – hey, maybe that’s what I’ll call you from now on!”

Tony bit back a howl of rage – he hated it when people called him names. “That’s it, Dr. Ridiculous. This means wars!”

Dr. Robert imitated Tony this time, laughing while saying, “Oh, I’m so scared! Whatever shall I do? Maybe I’ll crawl in the box with Schrödinger’s cat!”

With a final chuckle, the call was disconnected and Tony was left staring blankly at his mike, wondering how he had managed to declare an on-air war with his competition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title taken from the song by Panic! At The Disco.


	3. Regroovable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint, Pepper, and Rhodey wonder if Tony has lost his sanity - and someone knows who Dr. Roberts really is!

Tony finished the rest of the show in a daze, playing more music than commentary. By the time he had finished his segment and gotten onto his motorcycle, Tony had begun muttering, “I need a drink” to himself. He managed to make it home through the drizzle and parked his bike in his garage without incident. Tony shouldered the door open to the small townhouse he shared with Clint and Pepper – who was almost never there these days because of her internship at one of the prestigious art galleries but Tony would never admit he missed his best friend and _oomph_.

He had been in the process of yanking off his helmet and shrugging out of his jacket at the same time when he bumped into a small, lithe body. A pair of large, strong hands shot out to steady him as a bird-like laugh echoed from somewhere above. Tony’s vision came into focus as someone pulled his helmet off and Rhodey let go of his shoulders.

“Hey, Pep, good to know you’re alive. Did you say hi to Jarvis and the Hawk yet?”

Tony flashed his two childhood friends a grin as he hung his coat on a peg by the door and moved down the hallway toward the kitchen, his fingers itching to wrap around a tumbler of scotch and his stomach growling for food. He could hear James Rhodes – the tall Air Force cadet – and Pepper Potts – the petite but powerful redhead – follow him through the townhouse. The three friends had met at a prestigious primary school and bonded from day one when Tony pulled Pepper’s pigtails and Rhodey had laughed while helping him back up after Pepper had knocked him over. Not much had changed since that day when they were eight – well, Pepper had lost the pigtails and Tony and Rhodey had long since stopped wearing overalls and light-up sneakers.

Rummaging in the refrigerator for leftovers or some semblance of edible food – honestly where was Pepper these days when he needed a good home-cooked meal because he was going to starve if Clint kept ordering nothing but pizzas and Thai takeout. Tony managed to find some Thai takeout that, at first glance, didn’t contain anything of questionable origin. Sticking the white box in the microwave to heat up, Tony snagged a tumbler from over the bar and pulled the bottle of scotch he kept for emergencies out from behind the pancake syrup above the stove. Tony pulled the food out of the microwave and sank onto one of the barstools, takeout carton in front of him, good scotch in hand, and finally looked up at his two best friends.

Around the rim of the glass, Tony asked, “What?” at their matching attempts at intimidating glowers, and really, he’d never admit it but they _were_ pretty good at it.

“Tony,” Rhodey began calmly, “did you even think before you called him?”

“What on earth prompted you to call him?” Pepper asked.

A gentle whoosh of air sounded from the stairs as Clint dropped from where he had been perching on the banister and walked over to them. He hopped up on the counter and crossed his legs, one hand snaking out to snag a piece of leftover pizza from the box behind Pepper. He grinned as he took a bite, looking, quite aptly, Tony thought, like the cat that had swallowed the canary.

“I did,” Clint said in answer to Pepper’s question. When Pepper shifted her wrathful look at him, he shrugged. “I had Dr. Robert’s show on while I was working. Texted our boy here that it might be fun if he gave the other DJ a bit of a hard time. It’s impossible to get the dude riled, but when he’s mad – _oh boy,_ is he mad.”

Clint ducked as Pepper tried to smack him upside the head and he squawked in protest. “Hey, will you cut it out with the laser glare of doom? Tony,” he whined, “make her stop with the laser glare of doom!”

Tony just laughed at the fighting that had been a constant between Pepper and Clint since they had met almost four years before. After all this time, neither party meant anything by it, but they still loved to needle one another. He started to say, “Children, please,” but made the mistake of forking up a mouthful of Thai food just before it. Sensing something very odd in the food, he coughed and spit out the problem – a slice of octopus tentacle – and began choking by accident on the rest of the forkful in his mouth.

 _“Clint!”_ he roared, as Pepper leaned forward to clap him soundly on the back. “What have I told you about anything raw, strange, or tentacle-y in our takeout!”

The biologist just grinned, chuckling happily to himself as he finished his pizza and Tony swore he heard Clint say, “Do you ever think I do it to see your reaction?”

“All right, boys, that’s enough,” Rhodey cut in from where he was leaning against the refrigerator, arms crossed. “Tony,” he said gently, leaning forward, “the on-air war. What are you hoping to gain out of this?”

Tony shrugged, carefully picking through the Thai food now. “Just a bit of fun, really. The dude could use a bit of excitement on his show.”

He thought back to the way Dr. Robert’s voice had floated over and through him. Tony took a sip of scotch, hoping that the slow burn as it moved through him would dispel the lingering sensations the other DJ’s voice had caused. He felt as if his brain had been tilted sideways and rattle around, leaving his sense of reality very, very off-kilter. Tony imagined what it would be like to hear that voice next to him, in bed, ghosting over his skin, setting fire to the sensitive nerves along his jawline.

Sighing, he said, very softly, “And I like his voice. It sounds – dreamy.”

Rhodey sank down onto the barstool next to Tony’s, shaking his head. “Oh Tony,” he muttered. “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to end well?”

Snapping out of his daydream, Tony elbowed Rhodey. “Shush. A man can dream, can’t he? Besides, I don’t even know who he is in real life.”

“Does _anyone_ know who Dr. Roberts really is?” Clint asked, Rhodey’s furrowed brow seconding his question.

“I do,” Pepper said softly, a small smile appearing when three pairs of eyes grew round at her admission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from the jazz song by Chris Botti.


	4. Catch Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nefarious plots abound. Clint is only responsible for half of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I am so sorry for the delay in updating! I moved from the States to Europe about a month and a half ago and have just now been able to start writing again. I thought I had already posted this chapter, but apparently not. Next chapter will feature more of the Avengers and a surprise guest!

“What?” the three men chorused, staring at Pepper in shock.

She shrugged. “I’m allowed to have friends outside of you lot, you know.”

“Yes, yes,” Tony said, waving his hand in dismissal. “But _who_ is he? I’d ask his producer, Natasha, but she’s some sort of ninja assassin, I swear. She’d kill me before she said anything.” Tony shuddered, remembering the unspoken power and grace the redhead exuded. “Anyway,” he continued, “I’d love to meet the dude in real life, rib him a little without him knowing who I am.”

“Tony, no!” Pepper and Rhodey scolded while Clint chortled in delight at Tony’s idea. Glaring sternly at Tony, Pepper said, "I will not tell you who he is. He told me in confidence and trusts me to not spread it around."

Rhodey rolled his eyes to the ceiling and muttered, “Lord, give me strength.”

“Tony, you’re torturing the poor man enough with the on-air war. Don’t add to it in real life,” Pepper said.

“Why not?” Clint piped up. When the others turned to look at him, he continued. “I mean, the other guy is probably scrambling to figure out who Dr. Edward really is. Why not beat him to the punch?”

“How so, Clint?” Rhodey asked, curious about the biologist’s idea.

“Pepper, you know him – well?”

“Well, it’s not like I’m sleeping with him, but we’re good friends, yes.”

Clint cringed and held up a hand. “Too much information.” Pepper stuck her tongue out at him before he continued. "Why not throw a party this weekend? Invite a bunch of people – and Pep, you invite our mystery boy. We'll spread the word that Dr. Edward is going to be at the party to make sure that Dr. Robert will attend. Dr. Robert has got to be curious who Dr. Edward really is. Ten bucks says our boys figure each other out by the end of the night and then _fireworks,_ " Clint said, miming explosions with his hands.

“Uh, I don't – ” Pepper began.

“I like it!” Tony said, thumping the bar with his fork to emphasize his excitement. He looked to Pepper and said, “Tell your friend to be here Friday night for the party of his life.”

At the appearance of Tony’s Cheshire Cat grin, Rhodey groaned. “This is definitely _not_ going to end well,” he muttered, snagging Tony’s glass and finishing off the scotch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from the song "Catch Me" by K-Pop band TVXQ.


End file.
